TL;DR
- Players using subscriptions spend 17% more on average than one-off buyers.
- Subscription revenue across Tebex’s 45,000+ stores grew 92.6% year over year, from $8.1M to $15.7M.
- The biggest stores on the network are growing subscriptions fastest, not just small stores catching up from zero.
- Subscriptions work because they build retention, and retention compounds into outsized profit and revenue predictability.
- The same shift is playing out industry-wide at companies like Twitch and Discord.
Recurring revenue is no longer a feature of a handful of platforms. It is becoming the default way gaming makes money for many stores.
Subscriptions make up the majority of platform revenue at Twitch and roughly a third of Discord’s, ahead of ads, one-off purchases, and other offers.
That is not a coincidence. It is what happens when a business builds a direct, ongoing relationship with the people who pay it, instead of only relying on a new sale every time.
The same pattern is showing up across stores powered by Tebex. Across the Tebex network, subscription revenue grew 92.6% year over year, from $8.1M to $15.7M. The dollar-weighted total across the full ecosystem reinforces this trend holds up even when isolating the largest stores on our platform.
Why subscriptions work
In a foundational 1990 Harvard Business Review study, Bain researcher Fred Reichheld found that cutting customer defection by just 5 percentage points raised profits by 25 to 85% across the businesses studied.
A small improvement in how many customers stick around produced an outsized jump in profit.
The reason is compounding
A retained customer costs nothing more to acquire as the expensive legwork has already been done. Over time, they tend to spend more, cost less to serve, and often bring in new customers through word of mouth. None of that shows up in a single transaction but it does show up in the relationship and player LTV.
While the study is about retention in general, subscriptions are the clearest mechanism a store has for building that kind of retention. A one-time purchase doesn’t incentivize a player to come back to the store or game by itself. A subscription does.
Predictability changes how you plan
Recurring revenue is also easier to forecast than one-time revenue.
According to CFO Advisors, recurring revenue models are roughly twice as predictable as one-time revenue models. (8% to 12% forecast error for recurring revenues compared to 3% to 7% for one-offs.)
For a store owner, it means fewer surprise-bad months, and more confidence to reinvest in content, staff, or marketing without guessing whether the money will still be there next quarter.
Retention and predictability add up to something bigger. Put those two together and you get a store that grows its revenue base instead of resetting it every month.
A customer who sticks around is worth more over their lifetime, almost by definition. A revenue stream you can predict is one you can plan and reinvest around.
That is not just theory. Across Tebex stores in 2026, customers paying through subscriptions spend about 17% more on average than one-off buyers, even though players that have purchased subscription are still a minority.
The proof is in the biggest stores, and the biggest platforms
Start with some of the biggest stores on Tebex: GTAV’s server ecosystem, Cfx.re Portal, is the largest subscription account on the platform, grew subscription revenue by 191% year over year. Donut SMP grew 340% and the official 2b2t shop grew 93.9%.
Subscriptions work at scale across hundred of thousands of players, and especially for stores with long-standing communities as well as those just getting started.
As mentioned above the same pattern holds industry-wide.
- At Twitch, subscriptions make up 58% of platform revenue, ahead of advertising at 33% and everything else at 9%.
- At Discord, Nitro subscriptions account for over a third (36%) of total revenue.
With stores using Tebex and two of the largest platforms in gaming showing massive subscription package adoption and revenue share, the trend is clear that subscriptions should be a main monetization strategy for any gaming store.
Talk to your store’s Partner Success person about setting up your first subscription tier.
FAQ
Will a subscription cannibalize my existing one-time sales?
Subscriptions and one-time purchases tend to serve different players and different needs. A subscription gives your most engaged players an easy way to support your store consistently, without replacing the appeal of a one-off purchase for someone who just wants a single item.
What kind of perks work well as a subscription tier?
The strongest subscription tiers offer something ongoing, not a one-time item with recurring payment as a ‘bonus’ to the store owner. Recurring in-game currency, exclusive access, priority support, or a rotating perk set all tend to perform better than a single static reward.
How quickly do stores typically see results after launching a subscription?
Results vary by store size and community, but the data above shows growth compounding over a 12-month window rather than an overnight spike. Subscriptions build momentum as more players opt in and stay.
Do I need to remove my existing one-time purchase options?
No. A subscription is meant to sit alongside your existing store packages, not replace it.
Getting started
The first thing you will need to do is plan out your subscription plans. What we usually recommend is having three subscription plans, such as Bronze, Silver, and Gold, but you can set up your own names or add more, as you are not limited. Bronze is the cheap tier, and Gold is the higher tier.
The next step would be planning out the pricing. We encourage setting a low price so that it acts as a bundle, depending on how many perks will be granted. Check your one-off payments and try to charge 50% less than the one-off payment; either way, the subscription will recur, which will earn you more from recurring payments than from a single one-off payment.
Lastly, plan out the perks you will want to include in the subscriptions. For example, you could give extra coins when the subscription renews, such as giving 500 coins on the initial subscription payment, but granting 600 coins whenever the customer renews. Bundle up your subscription packages by combining multiple smaller packages into one subscription.
Once you have everything planned out, you can start creating the package:
To get started with creating a package, you need to do the following:
- Create a package by selecting "Add New" in the top right corner.
- In the "Pricing" setting, set an amount and change the "Recurring Payment" to the setting: "Charge a recurring subscription"
- Within your deliverables, ensure sure to add the "When the subscription renews" action for when you are using commands/discord actions.
- You should include a "Trial" which will be within the same section as the "Pricing" on the package settings; this will let you give out a free trial on the subscription for 1/3/7/10/14/30 days depending on your preference, and after that trial it will charge the full price.
- Double-check that your package has all of the following: a detailed package description, images/videos, and deliverables.
- Now you have created the subscription, and remember to press "Create".
Have questions about getting started with subscriptions or how you can optimize your store for recurring revenue?
The fastest way to get started is to talk to your Partner Success contact at Tebex. They can walk you through setting up your first subscription tier and help you figure out what kind of perks make sense for your community.